Governing Liberals Hold Lead Over PCs in Nova Scotia

MQO Research spoke with 600 residents of Nova Scotia to gauge the political temperature in the province for the Winter edition of our quarterly political poll: Atlantic Matters.

Provincial Politics

According to the latest polling numbers, the governing Liberals maintained their slim lead in January. Among decided and leaning voters:

Current Liberal support was relatively unchanged at 41%.

PC Party support trended down 3 percentage points to 33%.

NDP support edged up 4 percentage points to 19%.

Support for the Green Party was relatively unchanged this quarter at 7%.

The undecided / no vote group held steady at 40%.

“Support for the provincial political parties in Nova Scotia was relatively unchanged over the last quarter,” said Stephen Moore, Vice-President at MQO Research. “The Liberals continue to have a large lead in Halifax, but the Tories are competitive in all other parts of the province.”

Government Performance

The rating for the leadership of Premier Stephen McNeil edged down from a mean score of 5.0 last quarter to 4.7 in January (on a 10-point scale).

“Premier McNeil’s performance gets the lowest scores in Cape Breton and among females,” said Moore. “Halifax gives the Premier the highest marks – likely leading to the strong party numbers there.”

Provincial Outlook

The outlook for the province worsened slightly in January. 35% of Nova Scotians reported their outlook for the province had worsened over the past three months (up from 29% in October), while 46% indicated their outlook had stayed the same (down from 52% three months earlier) and 15% felt things had gotten better (relatively unchanged).

The Atlantic Matters poll was conducted by telephone from January 30th to February 10th, 2019 and included 600 randomly selected eligible voters from across the province. The margin of error for the total sample is ± 4.0 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

About MQO Research

MQO Research is one of Atlantic Canada’s leading market research firms, providing research insights to clients throughout the region and beyond. Our team includes experts in quantitative and qualitative methodologies and program evaluation. As a member of the Canadian Research Insights Council (CRIC), MQO subscribes to the highest standards of information gathering and research ethics in the industry.